SotU pt. 2

And so, on to Iraq. Nothing particularly new in the second half of the President’s speech. Sure, he laid out some specifics, gave some numbers and illustrated some of the torture methodology but none of this is news to serious people who have been studying Iraq and other dictatorships for the past 100 or so years. Same same for totalitarian butt-heads the world over.

I was highly gratified to hear a specific reference to the long-suffering Iranian people. One of the much-hoped-for outcomes of our invasion and occupation of Iraq will be the downfall of the Iranian regime next door. The first steps on the road to liberty for all the people of the Middle East.

North Korea got the usual treatment, we can’t really do much about you right now but we’ll not be blackmailed and if you push you’ll only end up isolated and alone. Or as Colin Powell once said, “The could launch a nuclear strike but we’d turn their country into a charcoal briquette by noon.” Meh, so much for the “great leader” and his pitifiul last outpost of Stalinism. You know, as a rule of thumb, any country that has to include every single word relating to democracy in its name (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, People’s Republic of China, etc) probably is precisely the opposite of what those words mean.

So, in the end, Mr. President laid things yet again at the doorstep of the U.N. and is leaving that useless body to stew in its own juices. Saddam has continually defied the edicts of the U.N. If they don’t have the cajones to stand up to him now then we’ll do it for them. Man, that’s good stuff. Ought to reveal the paper tiger once and for all. I loved the line about consulting with the U.N. but disarming Saddam regardless. If that doesn’t make it pretty plain that we don’t give two scratches of a plumber’s arse about that bunch of nanny state munchkins I don’t know what does.

So, that’s it. The State of the Union for 2003 is liberalism at home and the old “speak softly and carry a big stick” paradigm abroad. I have all kinds of fun comments scratched on my notesheets but the time has passed so I’ll keep them to myself.

I kept waiting for him to break into the speech and announce that the bombs had started to fall…alas, for that long-awaited announcement we’ll have to wait about two more weeks.